'The media can criticize the PM and he has the right to strike back'

Likud officials on Tuesday blasted the opposition over its protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's harsh criticism of Channel 2 News investigative journalist Ilana Dayan, saying the backlash represented a "double standard."

Dayan, who hosts the acclaimed investigative and current affairs program "Uvda" ("Fact"), aired a report on the Prime Minister's Office Monday alleging various administrative improprieties, including that Netanyahu's wife, Sara, regularly interferes with professional appointments within the bureau.

Netanyahu's response to the report, which questioned Dayan's professional integrity, angered the opposition, which accused the prime minister of "going too far."

"It's time that the media understand that just as they can criticize the prime minister, he has the right to strike back. For some reason, when journalists relentlessly target the prime minister and his family, no one ever says that's incitement, but when the prime minister exposes the political bias of those journalists, somehow that's always decried as incitement. The public sees this double standard for what it is," one Likud official said.

"The prime minister was right to redefine the rules of the game," Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev said Tuesday.

"Exposing the true nature of some in the media is vital to public discourse and Israeli democracy. Unfortunately, there are some in the media who are motivated by personal issues and the desire to settle political scores, and they are using their platform for one thing -- toppling the right-wing government.

"The public isn't stupid, which is why Netanyahu is the only prime minister to again and again win the public's vote -- despite the media banding together in the 'Anyone But Bibi' campaign," she said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely criticized Dayan: "The report was part of a system of work seeking to attack the Prime Minister's Office without speaking one truth about the prime minister. The public is tired of the recycled allegations about him and his wife, and the public knows that at the end of the day, Netanyahu is the only viable political leader in Israel."

Deputy Regional Development Minister Ayoob Kara said, "Dayan is trying to topple the right-wing government whichever way she can. Her actions are borderline unethical and reflect her obsession to wipe out the Likud government. I call on the Israel Press Council to investigate the report, which was full of inaccuracies. … This was not investigative journalism, but second-rate reporting."

Likud MK Yehuda Glick, however, said he felt it necessary "to defend Ilana Dayan's reputation in the Knesset. I cannot understand the reaction by the prime minister, whom I greatly respect."

Commenting on the controversy in an interview with Army Radio, Dayan said, "Netanyahu is my prime minister, not my opponent. It's part of my job to cover [the Prime Minister's Office] and I want to cover it.

"I know who wrote the response that came from the Prime Minister's Office, but I am more concerned about who signed it. When we air a report the prime minister is uncomfortable with, I suddenly become a radical leftist? I don't feel like a victim in this situation, nor was I offended, but it's time for Netanyahu to set aside the image of the victim. There is a difficult matter of principle in question. Bibi's office decided to respond this way because they deemed our report propaganda against the prime minister. They decided this was a personal attack against him, and that's unheard of."

Also on Tuesday, the Zionist Union asked Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to "review Dayan's troubling report, as well as the prime minister's response, which constitutes grave incitement."

Israel Journalists Association condemned "the prime minister's egregious personal attack on Ilana Dayan. Public officials are expected to respond to [media] question in a factual manner, not launch an unbridled assault against those who ask them on behalf of the public."

The political correspondents' association also denounced Netanyahu's response, saying: "We strongly condemn the unprecedented personal attack by the Prime Minister's Office on Ilana Dayan. Naturally, the prime minister reserves the right to respond [to media reports], but the political correspondents' group laments the fact the response completely ignored the finding and targeted Dayan instead."

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